Touch technologies are commonly used as input devices for a variety of products. The usage of touch devices of various kinds is growing sharply due to the emergence of new mobile devices such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDA), tablet PCs and wireless Flat Panel Display (FPD) screen displays. These new devices are usually not connected to standard keyboards, mice or like input devices, which are deemed to limit their mobility. Instead there is a tendency to use touch sensitive digitizers of one kind or another. A stylus and/or fingertip may be used as a user interaction.
Touch detection accuracy may change and/or touch sensitive digitizers may malfunction over time due to a number of system and environmental reasons, such as due to handling and dropping of the device. Monitoring and testing of digitizers typically involves manual evaluation of the device by an on-site technician and typically requires dedicated equipment. Such evaluation is typically both costly and time inefficient.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,690,156 entitled “Physical Object Location Apparatus and Method and a Platform using the same” and U.S. Pat. No. 7,292,229 entitled “Transparent Digitizer” both of which are assigned to N-trig Ltd., the contents of both which are incorporated herein by reference, describe an electro-magnetic method for locating physical objects on a FPD and a transparent digitizer that can be incorporated into an electronic device, typically over the active display screen. The digitizer sensor includes a matrix of vertical and horizontal conducting lines to sense an electric signal. Positioning the physical object at a specific location on the digitizer provokes a signal whose position of origin may be detected.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,372,455 entitled “Touch Detection for a Digitizer” assigned to N-trig Ltd, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, describes a digitizing tablet system capable of detecting position of both physical objects and fingertip touch using the same sensing conductive lines. Typically, the system includes a transparent sensor overlaid on a FPD. The digitizer's sensor includes a matrix of vertical and horizontal conducting lines to sense an electric signal. Touching the digitizer in a specific location provokes a signal whose position of origin may be detected.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20070268272 entitled “Variable Capacitor Array” assigned to N-trig Ltd, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, describes a digitizer sensor including pairs of conductive lines coupled to differential amplifiers through which a difference signal is detected, and capacitors operative to balance differences in parasitic capacitance between the conductive lines.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20040183787 entitled “Remote Touch Simulation Systems and Methods” which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety describes systems and methods for remotely simulating human touch on a touch screen sensor and for remotely performing diagnostics, calibration, and repair procedures based on the simulated human touch. Cooperation between a subject touch screen system and a remote system via a communication or network link is implemented to simulate human touch and perform diagnostics, calibration, and repair procedures.